The Scottish songs - National Library of Scotland

563
A Lawyer neist, wi' blatheiin gab,
Wha speeches wove like ony wab,
In ilk ane's corn aye took a dab,
And a for a fee.
Accounts he owed through a' the town,
And tradesmen's tongues nae mair could drown,
But now he thought to clout his goun
Wi' Jenny's bawbee.
A Norland Laird neist trotted up,
Wi' bawsend nag and siller whup,
—
Cried, " There's my beast, lad, haud the grup,
Or tie't till a tree :
What's gowd to me ?—I've walth o' Ian' I
Bestow on ane o' worth your ban' !"
He thought to pay what he was awn
Wi' Jenny's bawbee.
Drest up just \)ke the knave o' clubs,
A THING camie neist, (but life has rubs,)
Foul were the roads, and fu' the dubs,
And jaupit a' was he.
He danced up, squinting through a glass,
And grinn'd, " V faith, a bonnie lass I"
He thought to win, wi' front o' brass,
Jenny's bawbee.
She bade the Laird gae kame his wig,
The Soger no to strut sae big.
The Lawyer no to be a prig.
The Fool he cried, " Tehee I
I kenn'd that I could never fail I"
But she preen'd the dishclout to his tail.
And soused him in the water-pail.
And kept her bawbee.*
* Extracted, by Mr Thomson's kind permission, from his " Select Melo.
dies of Scotland."